As we can see, the return of Jesus to the Earth will be a truly magnificent event, surrounded by truly magnificent incidents, so magnificent that one may find it even fantasy-like. Jesus will come at a time when the world is in true need of Divine Help. Indeed this Divine Help will come with Jesus, but some of the trials of those days will be so great that not even he will be able to face it, ...

The killing of the False Messiah will traumatize the Christians and Jews who had followed him, for it will finally reveal to them that he was not what he had claimed to be. The Prophet of Islam, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said:

"The son of Mary will soon descend among you and will judge justly (according to the Law of
God [26]): he will break the cross and kill the pig... " (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The breaking of the cross may be figurative or literal: the destruction of erected idols in churches and tearing down of crosses from their steeples, as well as forbidding the use of personal crosses as symbols of religion; or the destruction of the myth that he was executed by the Romans on a cross at the instigation of the Jews. Likewise, the killing of the pigs may be both literal and figurative: literally conducting a campaign to kill all pigs so the consumption of their meat becomes impossible, allowing them to be killed, or simply re-imposing the ban God made since time
immemorial [27] on eating their flesh, effectively forcing pig farmers to get rid of their stock by culling. In effect, two of the mainstays of widespread Christian practice will be removed, indicating that the religion as taught by modern Christians would henceforth be defunct, and marking a return to the religion as originally intended (Islam).

Who the Gog and Magog are, exactly, is not known, though it is known from a hadeeth, found in the two principal books of authentic narrations (Saheeh Al-Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim), that they are of the nations of
mankind [29]. Of them, the Quran says:

"When he reached a valley between two mountains, he found a people who could barely understand a word. They said; O Dhul Qarnayn! Verily, Gog and Magog are doing great mischief in the land. Will you accept a tribute from us so that you build a barrier between us and
them?" (Quran
18:93-94)

After Dhul Qarnayn carried out their request (without exacting tribute), he told them:

"This is a Mercy from my Lord, but when the Promise of my Lord comes, He shall level it to the ground. And the Promise of my Lord is ever true. And on that day, we shall leave some of them to surge like waves on one
another..." (Quran
18:98-99)

This means that they will be a people who are not under the jurisdiction of Jesus when he accepts the pledge from former Jews and Christians. And it is the Gog and Magog who will be the final threat to the believers before his reign of peace. Again, the Quran says:

"When the Gog and Magog swoop down from every ridge, and the true Promise draws near, you will see the disbelievers, their eyes staring fixedly, in horror; They will say,
'woe to us; indeed were heedless of this - and we were wrongdoers.'" (Quran
21:96-97)

Not even Jesus will be able to withstand the coming of the Gog and Magog, for they will swarm the land destructively, like locusts.

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported that the prophet said that only the Muslims who retreat into their cities and strongholds with their cattle and sheep will survive the
onslaught.[30] It is also said:

God will reveal to Jesus, son of Mary, "I have brought forth people from among My creatures against who none will be able to fight. Take my worshippers safely to Mount
Tur." (Saheeh Muslim)

The Gog and Magog will be so many that when the last of the horde passes through a lake bed from whose water the first rank had drunk, they will bewail,
'There used to be water here, once.' Anybody not from themselves, except for the Muslims in their strongholds and refuges, will be killed, and the horde will declaim,
'We have defeated the people of earth. Now only the people of heaven are left [for us to
defeat].' On that, one will fire an arrow into the sky, and it will fall back to earth
blood-stained.[31]

Though the Gog and Magog will think they have obtained victory, their very boast would be their downfall, for the blood on their weapons will be nothing but a test from God.

The End of Gog and Magog

When the Gog and Magog will have driven the Muslims to hole up in their strongholds and refuges, and when they see the blood on their weapons, which will have returned from the sky, they will take these as evidence for their imminent victory over the Muslims. However, that evening:

"Jesus and his companions will beseech God, and God will send against them (the Gog and Magog) worms which will attack their necks; and in the morning, they will all perish as
one." (Saheeh Muslim)

Not knowing that the horde was already destroyed, the Muslims in their strongholds will call for a volunteer to scout out what the enemy was doing. The volunteer, knowing he would probably die, will descend to find them all dead, lying on top of one another. Returning, he will call out:
'O Muslims, rejoice! God has sufficed us against our enemies!'[32]

When Jesus and the people who took refuge on Mount Tur descend, they will find the same scene, with not a single spot of the earth around them free of the putrefying stench of rotting bodies. So sickening and dangerous to health will be the situation that Jesus will pray again to God, Who will send huge birds to carry them
off [33] and throw them into the sea where the sun rises.

The Aftermath

After that, God will send a drenching, intense rain that penetrates into everything, lasting forty days. Unlike the
Deluge,[34] this torrential rainfall will be beneficial, for:
"The earth will be washed till it looks like a mirror. God will then order the earth:
'Bring forth your fruit and restore your blessing.'" (Saheeh Muslim)

The Muslims will let their cattle and flocks out to graze again, and they will fatten up better than from any vegetation they had fed on
before.[35] Orchards will produce fruit of size and quality never known before, and cattle produce fine quality milk in copious amounts, enough so that nobody will experience any shortage of
it.[36]

The benefits, then, from the advent of the Gog and Magog, will the decimation of non-believers, leaving the world for a nation of the believers, and food in abundance after the earth had absorbed all the dead decaying bodies caused by their invasion and later extermination. For a period of time, wealth would be so abundant that people would not be able to find those to whom they could pay out the poor
due.[37] Abu Hurayrah reported the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, as saying:

"... And there will be no Jizya. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (in
charity)." (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The Reign and Death of Jesus

The reign of Jesus, may God grant him peace, will be by the Law that Muhammad brought. This is in accordance with the Covenant that God took from all his prophets. In the Quran, it says:

Behold! God took the Covenant of the prophets, saying: "I have given you the Book and Wisdom; then will come a messenger to you confirming what is with you, so believe in him and render him
help." God said: "Do you agree, and take this Covenant as binding upon you?" They said:
"We agree." He said: "Then bear witness! And I am with you among the witnesses."
(Quran
3:81)

The reign of Jesus, therefore, will be according to the Covenant with God, and this is backed up by an explanation of the saying of the Prophet by Abu Hurayrah, when he reported a question he had asked to his companions. He said:

The Messenger of God said, "What would you do when the son of Mary descends among you, and lead as one among
you?"

One of the companions, Ibn Abu Theeb, asked:

What does, 'He will lead as one among you' mean?

Abu Hurayrah replied:

"He will lead you according to the Book of your Lord, exalted and praised is He, and the Way of your
Messenger."[38]

His reign will be marked by mutual respect, peace and prosperity among the people. In another hadeeth, Abu Hurayrah said:

"Spite, mutual hatred and jealousy against one another will disappear, and when he (Jesus) summons people to accept wealth, none will do
so." (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The lack of rancor between people will be absolute, not relative, for at least seven years, wherein no two people would be stirred to ire towards each
other,[39] and the word between them would be
'peace'. In fact, religiosity and piety will be the order of the day, for to each person:

"A single prostration to God (in prayer) will be better than the whole world and whatever is in
it." (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

Jesus himself will not only rule and judge by the Muslim Shariah, he will complete all the Islamic pillars. The Prophet of Islam said:

"By him in Whose hand my life is, the son of Mary will certainly invoke the name of God for Hajj or
Umrah[40] or both in the valley of Rauha (a valley near
Medina)." (Saheeh Muslim)

Then, forty years after his second coming, he will die, and the Muslims will perform the funeral prayer for
him.[41] And this moment is the moment God is referring to in the Quranic verse:

"And there is none of the People of the Book who must believe in him before his
death... " (Quran 4:159)

God willing, all the people will be of one Book at that time.

Conclusion

As we can see, the return of Jesus to the Earth will be a truly magnificent event, surrounded by truly magnificent incidents, so magnificent that one may find it even fantasy-like. Jesus will come at a time when the world is in true need of Divine Help. Indeed this Divine Help will come with Jesus, but some of the trials of those days will be so great that not even he will be able to face it, fleeing to the tops of mounts with his followers. Only God will be able to save humanity in that time. Albeit, not only will this Divine Help come to put an end to the greatest trials faced by humankind since the dawn of time
- the False Messiah and Gog and Magog - but it will also come to show the truth about God, putting an end to all falsehood, with everyone being united under the one true religion of God.

Footnotes: [26] It is by this Law, the Shariah that is based on the Quran and way of Muhammad, that Jesus will rule with equity and justice.[27] As it is recorded in the Torah, as well as in the Quran.[28] Gog and Magog pronounced Yajuj wa Majuj in Arabic.[29] The Prophet said: "Among you are two nations that never approach anything but they overwhelm it with their large numbers; the Yajuj and
Majuj."[30] In Musnad Ahmad[31] 'Musnad Ahmad[32] Musnad Ahmed.[33] Saheeh Muslim[34] The Deluge that descended upon the people of Noah.[35] Musnad Ahmed[36] Saheeh Muslim[37] ibid[38] Saheeh Muslim[39] Saheeh Muslim[40] These are the Greater and Lesser Pilgrimages to the Holy Sanctuary in Mecca, the former being an obligatory ritual pillar of Islam.[41] Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said
"He (Jesus) will live on the earth forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him at his funeral
prayer." In Musnad Ahmed and Abu Dawood

*****

Jeremy Boulter is a faculty member at Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi
Arabia. He had edited, co-authored, and authored many books and publications in English regarding Islam and Interfaith, a few of them are The Return of Jesus (2013), The Dietary Laws of God (2010), The Beginning and the End (2012), My First Steps in Islam
(2009), Women in Islam and Refutation of Some Common Misconceptions (2006), Muhammed The Messenger of God (2006), The Message of Islam (2006) and many more.

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